Unit information: Exploring the Roman Cityscape in 2020/21

Unit name	Exploring the Roman Cityscape
Unit code	CLAS20070
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Hales
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Department of Classics & Ancient History
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The built environment is not only an indication of a community’s aesthetic inclinations and technological ambitions. It also reflects and affects the activities taking place inside and around it. This unit considers architectural forms and styles adopted in ancient Rome (the types of buildings and the way they are built and decorated) and the space enclosed by and between them. How do architecture and space help us understand a society and culture and what insight do they offer into how communities thought about themselves and their place in the world? The unit will explore these ideas through a case study of ancietn Rome. We will tour the leisurely lands of the Campus Martius, the wealth of the Palatine, and the Suburan slums, visiting sewers and backstreet warehouses alongside the city's most famous monuments, the Pantheon and the Colosseum.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the relationship between architectural form and the use of space;
2. demonstrate an ability to recognise the major architectural forms and the topography of the unit’s case study;
3. use the knowledge acquired in class and through their own reading to construct coherent, relevant and persuasive arguments on the built environment;
4. demonstrate communication skills in the composition of written work at a standard appropriate to level I.

Teaching Information

1 x one-hour lecture

1 x two-hour seminar per week.

Assessment Information

Timed assessment (100%)

Reading and References

See Blackboard for all reading and references information